Many frozen comestibles, such as ice cream, sherbert, or the like, are stored in containers in bulk form, and must be scooped out for consumption.
The removing of frozen comestibles from the storage containers is often made difficult because many forms of such food items must be maintained in a frozen state in order to be most desirable. Often, the requirements of freezing are such that the food item is quite hard and difficult to remove. While this may be an onerous task at home, if it is too time consuming and difficult, a store specializing in such food may lose business or be economically disadvantaged if the servers cannot remove the food quickly and easily from the storage containers.
For this reason, there have been many various designs proposed for easing the removal of frozen comestibles, such as ice cream, from the bulk storage containers. For the most part, such serving devices comprise a scoop-shaped bowl portion of semispherical configuration which is adapted to bite into the mass of the frozen comestible as the head of the device is forced into and through that comestible by manipulation of a handle portion connected to the head. The comestible forms a ball within the head and this ball can be dispensed accordingly.
Due to the difficulty in scooping and dispensing many highly frozen comestibles, many such scoop designs have been proposed. One common design includes an electrical resistance heating element in the scoop. This heating element is connected to a source of power, and serves to heat the scoop to melt the comestible sufficiently so as to ease the removal of that food from the bulk storage container and the dispensing thereof to a cone, dish or the like.
In the past, such electrically heated scoops have had disadvantages which have hindered the commercial acceptance thereof. Primary among such disadvantages is the cumbersome nature of such electrically heated scoops. These scoops are often heavy and may be difficult to manipulate, thereby making them undesirable for use by a server who must use the scoop many times a day. Furthermore, due to the design of presently available scoops, many electrical control elements, such as thermostats, and the like, are required thereby exacerbating the disadvantages thereof.
Accordingly, there is need for a scoop adapted for serving frozen comestibles and Which is electrically heated but is designed to be effective Without being cumbersome.